THE MAELSTROM THAT IS EUROPE,
COMPLICATED BY IRON,
LOVE AND 20TH CENTURY AMERICANS
The Thirty Years War continues to ravage 17th century Europe, but a new force is gathering power and influence: the United States of Europe, forged from an alliance between Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, and the West Virginians from the 20th century, led by Mike Stearns, who were hurled centuries into the past by a mysterious cosmic accident.
This troubled century was full of revolutions and plans for more revolutions before the Americans arrived, and gave every would-be revolutionary an example of a revolution that succeeded. Europe is a pot coming to a boil, and Mike Stearns finds himself walking the fine line between keeping the pot boiling while keeping it from boiling over and destroying the USE in the process.
The USE has the know-how of 20th century technology, but needs iron and steel to make the machines. The iron mines of the upper Palatinate were rendered inoperable by wartime damage, and American ingenuity is needed on the spot to pump them out and get the metal flowing again—a mission that will prove more complicated than anyone expects. First, because the expedition sent to revitalize the mining industry in the upper Palatinate walks into the middle of a ferocious battle between the USE and the Duke of Bavaria. Second, because in the maelstrom that is Europe, even a 20th century copy of the Encyclopedia Britannica can precipitate a crisis from the most unexpected quarters. The young and beautiful daughter of the Austrian emperor, sent to marry the Duke of Bavaria for reasons of state, comes to an unforeseen conclusion based on her study of up-time history. The decision she makes as a result transforms the Bavarian war into a crisis for all of Europe.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Eric Flint is a popular star of SF and fantasy. 1634: The Baltic War, a collaboration with David Weber, was the latest New York Times best seller in the Ring of Fire series. His first novel for Baen, Mother of Demons, was picked by Science Fiction Chronicle as a best novel of the year. His novel 1632, which launched the Ring of Fire series, won widespread critical praise, as from Publishers Weekly, which called him "an SF author of particular note, one who can entertain and edify in equal, and major, measure." A longtime machinist, and labor union activist with a master's degree in history, he currently resides in northwest Indiana with his wife Lucille.
Virginia DeMarce, after jobs as peculiar as counting raisins for the Calif. Dept. of Agriculture, received her Ph.D. in Early Modern European History from Stanford University. She has published a book on German military settlers in Canada after the American Revolution and has served as president of the National Genealogical Society. She taught at Northwest Missouri State University and at George Mason University. She has had stories in the Ring of Fire anthology and Grantville Gazette (#1), and more stories in the online Grantville Gazettes. She has three grown children and five grandchildren, and lives in Arlington, VA, with her husband.
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Product ReviewThe Very BEST History/Fiction. Of course it is complicated and broken up, in both story lines and locales. Try to learn something about the impact of personalities of the time period on the events of their time. Remember, you tiny minds, these/those people did not KNOW they were involved in History. Just as you are not aware (on oh-so-many-levels) that your own lives are also. But then, the grains of wheat are small in number and size, compared to the chaff hiding them. Joe
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Product ReviewThis is by far better then the Ram Rebelion ( the other Virginia DeMarce and Eric Flint book). Very fun and for those who know any history it describes both life and politics very well .
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Product ReviewPersonally, I quite liked this book. If you're expecting a full on war story, like 1633 had, you'll be disappointed, but really this book isn't telling that kind of tale. Instead it's more of a political study, and adventurous romance. In many ways while the 1632 novels have often been set in the middle of warfare, the political angles have been the real drivers of the story all along.
As one character in this book put it, "Most of what a soldier does winds up being a waste of time and effort, in the end." Since he's part of a unit that spend the latter half of the book dragging heavy cannons over half of Europe, ultimately never getting anywhere in time to accomplish anything, he'd know what he was talking about. :)
And that bring up what I liked most about this book. It's one of the funniest in the series that I've read so far. The humour was usually dry, but it never seemed to be out of place.
There are a lot of facts, and info about historical figures. I don't feel there was too much of that though, and one thing would have liked was a more detailed map, while I was trying to follow the various groups travels. The map of the Swiss, Austrian, Horn, Palitinate area has at best 2 dozen cities on it, most of which didn't actually get visited in the book. A few of the larger centers that the Duchesses party passed through or near, would have given me some rough idea of just where they were at any time. As it is, I only have the vaguest idea of the path they took from Ulm to Basel.
Anyways, I enjoyed this book, but don't expect it to detail any thrilling battles, since there are at best only a few minor skirmishes. Political maneuvering and romance are the main focus of the book.Posted on
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Product Review
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Product ReviewSo far the worst of the 1632-series, even more disappointing that The Ram Rebellion whose shortcoming could be excused by being a collection of loosely connected short stories. This on the other hand was supposed to be a novel. And what did we get? Lot
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Product ReviewNot quite as bad as the Ram Rebellion, but not as good as the Andrew Dennis collaborations, which themselves were quite below the standard of the first book and the subsequent Weber collaborations. This one still has a strong whiff of bad fan-fic, but again, nothing like Ram Rebellion. We have to stop actually buying this stuff and feeding Flint's delusion that the filler novels are good since the sales are good. The truth is we get jazzed up when we read a Weber collaboration, and then like a junkie, reach for the fan-fic fillers to hold us over till the next hit of Weber.
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